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Protectionism in Juvenile Corrections

Suppose you own two automobiles; a brand-new, 8-seat SUV and an old, broken-down coupe. The SUV is more than capable of safely and conveniently transporting your family to their individual destinations, while every trip with the coupe is a roll of the dice. Would you pay to keep it running in its current state? Moreover, would you borrow money from your neighbor to do so?

The current notion of keeping open an unneeded, and ineffective state youth lockup that was budgeted for closure is no less senseless.

DEREK M. COHEN is Deputy Director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Right on Crime campaign. Cohen graduated with a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Bowling Green State University and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati, where he is currently completing his Ph.D. dissertation on the long-term costs and outcomes associated with correctional programming. His academic work can be found in Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management and the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology and The Oxford Handbook on Police and Policing, and has scholarly articles currently under review. He has presented several papers to the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the American Evaluation Association on the implementation and outcomes of various criminal justice policy issues. Prior to joining the Foundation, Cohen was a research associate with University of Cincinnati’s Institute of Crime Science. He also taught classes in statistics, research methods, criminal procedure, and corrections.